With the Apollo Twin X DUO, Universal Audio offers a powerful Thunderbolt 3 audio interface with first-class A/D and D/A conversion, two Unison preamps and real-time UAD plug-ins for Mac or PC. Based on Universal Audio's 60-year tradition of audio craftsmanship, the Twin X features a 127 dB D/A dynamic range and award-winning analogue emulations, which are processed externally in real time thanks to the processors, allowing your computer to devote more capacity to other computing tasks.
Apollo Twin X DUO comes with two Unison mic amps and excellent mic preamp emulations from Neve Helios, API, Manley, UA and others. This means you get detailed tones of the coveted tube and solid-state microphone preamps - 100% and including input impedance, the "sweet spots" of the gain stage and component-level circuitry of the original hardware! Work virtually latency-free via emulations such as the included UA 610-B Tube Preamp & EQ and get an unrivalled, authentic analogue sound. Unison technology is also found on the front Hi-Z instrument input, providing perfect impedance and gain matching for guitar and bass amps from Fender, Marshall, Ampeg and many more.
Universal Audio's Apollo Twin Interfaces are used every day for a wide variety of situations and particularly for recording exceptionally good sounding records - as evidenced by thousands of chart hits and hundreds of Grammy-award winning albums. But UA's engineers set out to improve on the previous generation's superior audio conversion and completely redesigned it to deliver a stunning 127dB dynamic range and -117dB of distortion. This gives the Apollo Twin X an open, organic sound that easily keeps up with dedicated high-end converters.
Apollo Twin X also includes the Realtime Analog Classics Suite of UAD plug-ins - the UA 610B Tube Preamp & EQ, Teletronix LA-2A and 1176 compressors, Marshall Plexi Classic Guitar Amp, Ampeg SVT-VR Classic Bass Amp, Pultec EQs and more. So from the first minute you'll have a full virtual rack full of groundbreaking and sonically rich audio classics. The Twin X's built-in processors take the lead in processing, leaving your computer CPU more room for other important computing tasks.
Luna is Universal Audio's proprietary, full-featured DAW that provides unparalleled deep integration of preamp, interface, DSP and sequencer. For the first time, Luna allows the complete recording and production process with hardware and software from a single manufacturer to be managed in a single screen window. Luna controls the microphone amplifiers in the Apollo interfaces via the famous UAD2 plug-ins, adjusts their impedance and sonic behaviour matching the emulated analogue hardware and allows monitoring of gain staging. Furthermore, the DSP cores of all Apollo interfaces and UAD DSP processors are controlled from a central location, reducing the overall latency from signal input to output to less than 2ms. Together with special Luna extensions for Neve consoles and Studer multitrack machines, for example, you can not only record like in an analogue studio, but you will sound like it!
Luna also comes with Unison microphone preamp plug-ins from Neve, Manley, API, Avalon and other well-known manufacturers and includes a whole range of newly developed instruments. These include a realistic Minimoog, a beautiful grand piano that combines sampling and physical modelling, Spitfire Audio's orchestral instruments, and a large sample library.
Luna is free of charge for owners of the newer Apollo interfaces and so no one has to get frustrated when switching: Luna supports the DAW-wide session format AAF!
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The Apollo Twin X provides a total of 10 x6 I/Os to ensure that you remain versatile and are prepared for all common recording situations. These include two Unison preamps, two line outputs, an optical ADAT / SPDIF connector, special monitor controller functions and an integrated talkback microphone. In a compact housing - what more could you want?
Users can combine their audio interface with up to four Thunderbolt Apollos and six UAD-2 devices to add I/O and DSP as the studio grows. Once you expand your studio with an Apollo X rack interface, you can use the Apollo Twin X as a desktop monitor controller with additional I/O and enhanced DSP power
This is a solid core unit which takes a little while to set up but once its done easy to navigate with help of the online videos and with the added bonus of being able to expand the memory in the future depending on the size of the project. Only down side is the cost of the plugins and you have to search to find your purchased products in the library. Otherwise seems to be a solid must have.
I bought the Apollo Twin X after testing a friend's Apollo Twin Duo. I was amazed at the difference of recording quality obtained with the Apollo Twin compared to my Motu audio interface. Not only the preamps are crisp and warm (the Motu's are sort of dull), the converters are amazing and I can rediscover listening to albums on Spotify and hearing things I never heard before. (Make sure to select "Streaming Quality = Very High" in your Spotify settings.) I use the unit for recording and producing music of course, but what I truly enjoy and didn't expect is to also use it daily to listen to music and podcasts. I also run my business Video / Audio calls through the unit using a SM58 Beta to bring a close-up and detailed sound to my interactions with my clients & my inner circle.
I am a big fan of the one knob does it all design. The construction is nicely heavy and solid, nothing feels cheap. The new talkback feature is surprisingly useful and fun, I must admit. Make sure you get yourself a usb-c (thunderbolt 3) cable as none comes with the unit. I thought I could get away using my Macbook Pro's power cable, but nope. It must me a "data" cable, meaning Thunderbolt 3. For various reasons, I would recommend getting a shorter cable than longer (0.8m is seemingly the sweet spot).
I would highly recommend any of the Apollo Twin audio interfaces having tested 3 different ones. Enjoy!
I swore I'd never go back to the darkside (UA), but the BFP/usb 2.0 is not working well on my new computer, so I tried a friend's old apollo twin and it was more solid. I heard the D/A is much better on the x (I owned orig. apollo, terrible D/A), even better than BFP some say.
I'm not disappointed. I would say the D/A is at least as good if not better than bfp, probably better–stereo field seems deeper, dynamic range more broad, transients a little more detailed. Got open box price so definitely worth it. Don't want to buy too many plugins bc they're overpriced–wish me luck on that...